Those of you whom have bought your "décimos" for Tuesday's (22 December 2009) Spanish Christmas Lottery have just a few anxious days left to wait. Will you win "El Gordo"?

It'll start at about 8am and may last as late as noon on Tuesday, 22 December. You'll be able to watch locally on TVE as well as online via RTVE.es.

My barber told me just yesterday, "It's not Christmastime until I hear those children singing out the Christmas lottery numbers. THAT'S when Christmas starts for me."

He and I talked about Christmas customs and the lottery too. He said that Spaniards often "gift" these Christmas lottery tickets to share or to trade, that people in one city will trade them with people in another city. He also said, of which I was already aware, that people play the same numbers every year, that people choose their "lucky numbers" as the end-number in the 5-digit number, and that buying Christmas tickets at specific locations also brings them luck.

Watch the video below of 2008's El Gordo winning numbers called and the celebrations of those who won. Really, it even choked ME up!!



Interesting, informative link about Spain's Christmas Lottery (in English):
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/091203/spain-christmas-lottery

your barber is very Spanish, ::) my grandparents play the same number for years.....never won anything, but they keep playing, then they started buying billetes for the children,and grandchildren.
Lets see who or how many wins it this year ::)

perhaps this is the year.... good luck to all

Do the "ONCE" people sell the gordo tickets, too?

teachertraveler8, while not 100% certain, I'm 98% sure the "ONCE" people do not sell the Christmas lottery tickets. In fact, not all "fijo" (i.e. "brick and mortar") lottery outlets sell them and not sure why.

Saludos, MadridMan

We have some tickets! the suegros bought us numbers this year!!! We will be staying up very late here on the west coast of the U.S. to hear those numbers called. Thanks MM for the internet link~!
Good Luck to everyone!

KNOCK ON WOOD!! Got my numbers at hand, going to be "early", and will have the alarm set for 7:30am, giving me time to have breakfast before the event starts. I don't watch it minute by minute but do have it on in the background as I'm at the computer. Good luck, laduque!! You can also watch via TeleMadrid SAT online too.

After doing come quick calculations, if "we" win El Gordo, our group would each win 60,000 Euros for the décimo. Not bad, right? But if we win one of the countless "Mil Euros..." we'll only get 20 Euros each for our décimo. Hmph. I read everyone has a 15% of winning SOMETHING - which isn't bad for a lottery!

¡TOCAR MADERA!

Saludos, MadridMan

Just a few minutes left!! Got my tickets at-hand but will not be checking them with EVERY calling of "Mil Euros..." I'll check my numbers throughout the morning online at http://www.rtve.es/sorteos/loteria-navidad/directo/ - where you can not only watch the lottery live online but also check numbers.

3.5 hours of lottery coverage. That's until 12:30pm or so.

There go all the balls into their tumblers!! They're filling up fast! Woo Hoo! What anxiety!!!!

Saludos, MadridMan

Brandon & Valeria have called 4 "premios" for the 2nd "tabla" of the total nine of today's lottery. Brandon is the boy who called last year's El Gordo! This kid is lucky!!

Bravo Murillo in Madrid and Getafe won it!!!